My friend has a sick danio and asked a person what the problem is. they said its probaly neon tetra disease. Is there a cure for neon tetra disease and if so please tell.Also I would like to know what caused it any ideas please?
A sick danio does not = neon tetra disease. Neon tetra disease is a parasite that has been known to infect other fish besides neons but diagnosing it in a danio would take a microscopic look at tissue after the fish dies. It is caused by an insidious little creature called Pleistophora.
There are so many other diseases and problems that may be affecting the danio that I would put Pleistophora very low on the possibilities.
For anyone's benefit and interest I wrote this on neon disease a while back in a different forum and I will reprint it here.
Hi.
I wanted to tell you a little bit about neon tetra disease.
Neon tetra disease has a scientific name of Pleistophora, I'm not sure if it is latin or greek, but the name infers that is "releases or bears many spores". The organism is a protozoan, not a bacteria, it actually imbeds itself deep within tissue of the victim. It forms what is called a sporoblast, a kind of protective structure, and inside the nucleus divides and produces many many more spores, and it is said that when the victim dies, and the other fish eat this fish, or when the muscle tissue on the dead victim deteriorates, these spores are released into the water or into the next victim.
It is the poster child of insidious parasitism.
It cannot be cured.
There are people who claim that antibiotics can cure it. By virtue of what Pleistophora is, it is therefore impossible for antibiotics to cure it.
No doubt there are bacteria that can cause illness that looks similar to neon tetra disease, and it is no doubt these cases that have recovered and led to the belief that it can be cured.
It cannot be cured. Period.
How can it be controlled? By understanding how it is spread you can see that removing infected fish BEFORE they die will put a damper on the problem. The spores are released from a victim after death, either by other fish eating the dead fish or by the spores being released after the tissue breaks down and releases them.
Removing and destroying the fish at an early diagnostic stage is the only way to quash it.
But, being the insidious thing that it is, it has another way of spreading. If the spore settles in the fishes' urinary system, ie,Kidneys, then the spores are released in the urine into the water column of the tank. But, this scenario is a less common one.
So, it is important to remove infected fish.
If you go to the store to buy neons, you should look at the fish and see how many are showing signs of Pleistophora. It is present in ALL populations of neon tetras, it may not be evident in the small amount of fish that a particular store buys, but it is present in the larger population that the store group came from.
The other thing people should know is that it also infects other species of tetras, it is said to infect barbs, danios, and even rasboras, but I think it can be agreed that neons are the primary victim, and it is easily found in most tanks of them eventually.
The earliest onset of this disease in neons appears to be two almost gold spots that appear at the caudal peduncle, the base of the tail. Good observation is the only way to detect this, it is very subtle and doesn't last long. Then the red colored area begins to fade, eventually taken over by off white, and a clear eaten away look. Actual lumps will often form on the fish, if it lives this long, and it will appear to have bacterial infections, or pustules, but it is not a bacterial infection. If the fish lives beyond this, most don't, then the spine itself may start becoming deformed.
It is all pretty scary, but fortunately if the infected fish are removed early on then it should slow down in the tank.
Obviously in the wholesale, retail realm, the fish are cramped, stressed, and if it is present then the spores have a major go at it.
Hope this provided some insight.
Bill
